Erdogan Raising "Devout Generations"

"[Education] is now being used to raise an obedient generation that will serve the government." — Sakine Esen Yilmaz, Secretary General of a secular teachers' union.

Christian Pastor Ahmet Guvener managed to get his daughter, also a Christian, an exemption from mandatory Islamic religious classes in her Turkish school, but he soon found out this was not an easy task. Schoolteachers offered the girl three options: take as an elective course, "the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the Quran," or basic religious knowledge -- or fail the year. After the father spoke to the press, the school offered his daughter an alternative: an elective course in "astronomy."

For the Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a pious Sunni man is, by definition, a more decent man than any other. Therefore, he reasons, a pious Sunni youth is better than any other youth.

In 2012, (then prime minister) Erdogan openly declared that his political ambition was "to raise devout generations." The opposition protested that it was not a government's mission to raise devout or non-devout generations; that in a secular country this choice belonged to parents, not to the government. In response, Erdogan said: "Should we, then, raise atheist generations?" He does not understand. He evidently will not.

At an inauguration ceremony in March 2015, Erdogan proudly said that the number of "imam school" students had risen from a mere 60,000 to 1 million. That is wonderful news for Erdogan, himself a graduate of an "imam school."

Erdogan does not hide his divisive and discriminatory thinking on Turkey's "two youths." In a recent public speech to supporters of his Justice and Development Party (AKP), including big groups of "pious youths," Erdogan labeled as "vandals" millions of young Turks, who in the summer of 2013 protested against his government in countrywide mass demonstrations. Then he addressed the "good" boys and girls: "It is you who, with your hard work, moral values, knowledge and energy, represent this country's future."

Education, Erdogan seems to calculate, is one of the most strategic tools to achieve his ambitions about raising "devout generations." It is for this reason that his government has the habit of resorting to every possible tactic to force children into piety and keep them away from whomever he considers a bad influence -- the "bad ones," whom he calls vandals.

Recently, two "vandal" schoolchildren, who wrote "Where is Berkin? on the blackboard, were sent to their school's disciplinary board for punishment.

Berkin Elvan died in 2014 at the age of 15, after nine months in a coma, after a tear gas canister shot by the police hit his head at the time of the 2013 protests in Istanbul. He had gone out to buy a loaf of bread. Since his death, Erdogan has been insisting that the boy was a terrorist.

But Erdogan's systematic classroom indoctrination, in favor of piety and against dissent, is more problematic than just two schoolchildren being sent to the disciplinary board.

Turkey's compulsory religious education classes, which the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) last September declared violated the right to education, put pressure not only on non-pious Muslims, but on Muslim parents and non-Muslim Turks, too.

A directive sent early in February to Turkish schools by the Education Ministry states that only Christian and Jewish students will be exempt from compulsory religion classes, which overwhelmingly teach the virtues of Sunni Islam.

To implement the system, the "religion" field on a student's identity card will be checked to see if he or she can be exempted from the compulsory classes. If the field is left empty (as most atheist parents do), or if any religion other than Christianity or Judaism is written, the student will be obliged to take the class. The directive is a draconian move from the earlier system, which simply allowed a student to drop the religion class if either parent was Christian or Jewish.

One frustrated father told Hurriyet Daily News that he is Christian and his wife is Muslim, and they would now have to change their son's identity card details. "We had left the religion field on our child's identity card empty to allow him to decide when he turns 18. Now I will be forced to have them write Christian on the card," he said.

In another incident, also in February, Christian Pastor Ahmet Guvener managed to get his daughter, also a Christian, an exemption from mandatory Islamic religious classes in her Turkish school; but he soon found that this was not an easy task. Schoolteachers offered the 17-year-old girl three options: take as an elective course either of "the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the Quran" or basic religious knowledge -- or fail the year. Guvener said that the incident seriously damaged his daughter emotionally, and accused the school of forcing religious education on students. Eventually, after the father spoke to the press about the case, the school offered his daughter an alternative: an elective course in "astronomy."

"[Education] is now being used to raise an obedient generation that will serve the government," says Sakine Esen Yilmaz, Secretary General of a secular teachers' union.

Erdogan behaves as like an unhappy father who has two children: one that he adores and the other, a maverick, to whom he can never teach the manners that a good, pious, Muslim father thinks are essential for decent upbringing. The maverick child constantly refuses to be like his devout and obedient brother. Hence the constant fighting at the Erdogan home, and his increasing frustration about the vagabond child.

Ironically, perhaps, the maverick brother is sorry about the family's misery, and often stands up against the father, for which he gets punished. The good child is happy. The father is not. The father will not have peace until the maverick child has been educated into piety and has learned to respect the father unconditionally.

The problem for Erdogan is that the maverick child has grown beyond his years to "change radically." For Erdogan, this is a losing family war. Too bad for Erdogan that his maverick child, half of Turkey's youth, cannot just be disowned.

Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Comment on this item

7 Reader Comments

Colin Jones • Apr 3, 2015 at 08:54

Erdogan is determined to enforce his superstitious nonsense on a secular nation.

I find it really hard to reason why so-called intelligent human beings in the 21st century still subscribe to this garbage which belongs in a long gone past where scientific enquiry was never envisaged.

I am sure Ataturk never thought that his nation would ever regress to a 7th century belief system long ago discredited in thinking people.

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Newspaniard • Apr 2, 2015 at 02:07

Sounds like the difference between the Hitler Youth and the "others". Bullying is a trait of all Islamists. Kemal Ataturk must be spinning in his grave as Erdogan gradually undoes all his work. I think that we can manage without Turkey in the EU, thank you, at least until after the UK leaves.

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David Barratt • Apr 1, 2015 at 23:24

President Erdogan should realize that any attempt to re-establish the the Ottoman Empire (even by political influence or meddling) will result in the whole of the Middle East uniting against their former oppressors. Any attempt to do so militarily (boots on the ground) will be an absolute disaster for the Turkish nation. His imperial ambitions can only be against the best interests of the Turkish people.

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DockyWocky • Apr 1, 2015 at 11:17

Raising good little "commies" has now changed to raising good little jihadis.

If people could only be enraged about the manipulations of children by governments, here or anywhere else around the world.

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Vivienne Leijonhufvud • Apr 1, 2015 at 08:59

Turkey is now a serious threat to the west and in particular Europe. Turkey has been demanding to join the EU for years and is almost succeeding under the aegis of Ashton, Mogerhini, Wallstroem & Mallestroem. Europe will no longer be an ally to Israel when this bunch of radicals join the EU. Things are really getting out of hand. The Ottoman Empire is on the rise.

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Ed in North Texas • Apr 1, 2015 at 07:29

Erdogan is on a mission to change Turkey from Attaturk's secular Turkey to an Islamist country ruled by Sharia and Erdogan (or his designated successors). He knows, from watching the West, that the schools are the key to eliminating the parental influence over their children and establishing the government's control. The further away Turkey goes from the secular state, the more difficult it will be to change the trajectory to Islam and Sharia.

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Dieter • Apr 1, 2015 at 07:01

The gutless, spineless, cowardly bed-wetters who are trying to do everything to abolish national pride and Christianity in Europe should be having a field day with this. This is not only everything they are fighting against, this is against every European directive. What a wonderful opportunity to tell Turkey to get out and stay out of Europe.

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